Voter suppression: the "Schurick Doctrine" and the unravelling of American democracy

Republicans across
the United States have passed a spate of voter suppression laws aimed at those
most likely to vote for Obama. They are specifically targeting African American
women who, in the past, created a gender gap that decisively elected Democratic
presidents. America needs immediate international monitoring of its
presidential election, says Ruth Rosen

How
will the American Presidential election be won in November 2012? By
the Republicans buying the election? Perhaps. But money cannot always
buy an election. That is why Republicans have spent the last 4-6 years
passing a spate of voter suppression laws in “swing states” that will
make it more difficult and costly for the young, the elderly,
minorities, union members and single and elderly women to cast a vote
for Barack Obama.

Although
the Republican effort is not exactly a secret, few Americans are
discussing it with the urgency it deserves. The nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice
at the New York University School of Law says that since the start of
2011, 16 states—which account for 214 electoral votes—have passed
restrictive voting laws. Each law is different: some curb voter
registration drives; others require new and costly forms of
identification; and still others insist that voters produce
government-issued photo IDs at the polls. The Brennan Center also
points out that:

“[T]he scope of the suppression movement and its potential
impact are staggering ... as
many as 11 percent of eligible voters—roughly 21 million Americans—lack
current, unexpired government-issued photo IDs. The percentages are
even higher among seniors, African-Americans and other minorities, the
working poor, the disabled and students—constituencies that
traditionally skew Democratic and whose disenfranchisement could prove
decisive in any close election.”

The American Civil Liberties Union
and other civil rights groups have been trying to gain injunctions
against laws passed by Republican-dominated state legislatures, but with
mixed success.

The
Republicans argue they are preventing voter fraud. But is there a
significant amount of voter fraud? Or is this a partisan effort to find
a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist? The Bush administration
spent five years (2002 to 2007) searching for voter fraud and found only 86 cases. The Brennan Center for Justice, as well as the ACLU, have also found infinitesimal instances of voter fraud.

The
sudden need for unexpired passports, the demand for government-issued
photo identification, is simply a flagrant way of suppressing the votes
of those who are more likely to vote Obama. The new identification
requirements make it difficult, if not impossible, for some citizens to exercise
their constitutional right to vote. In some states poll hours have
been expanded for likely Republican voters and decreased for probable
Democratic voters. Many elderly people no longer have their birth
certificates. Many minorities and young people don’t own cars and
therefore don’t have driving licenses. Young people often don’t have
access to any of these records when they live far away from their
parents. But those who vote by absentee ballot—suburban voters who tend
to be independents or Republicans—are not required to have photo IDs.
Ironically, this from a country that has consistently—in the name of liberty and
freedom—refused to force
its citizens to carry identifications cards.

What few critics seem to realize is that women—who constitute at
least half of all these targeted groups and who vote more often than
men—will be even more disenfranchised. Ever since 1980, African
American women have been decisive in creating a gender gap that has
helped elect Democratic Presidents. And in 2012, these women—in
addition to single and elderly women—may be prevented from protecting
Obama’s signature health care program, women’s reproductive rights, the
right to abortion, funds for Planned Parenthood, and Social Security and
Medicare—the very safety net that the Romney/Ryan Republican ticket has
campaigned to eliminate or change in fundamental ways.

Viviette Applewhite. Photo: ACLU ofPennsylvania, aclupa.orgConsider the case of Viviette Applewhite,
a 93-year old resident of Pennsylvania. She marched with Martin Luther
King Jr. but cannot get a photo ID because all her papers were stolen
from her purse. On three occasions she has tried to obtain a birth
certificate from The
Pennsylvania’s Division of Vital Records. Although she paid the fees,
she never received one. Now, a newly engaged lawyer has been trying,
once again, to obtain her birth certificate. On July 25, 2012, however,
the Pennsylvania court upheld the law that may very likely prohibit her from voting.

Republicans
are thrilled by their successful effort at suppressing women’s votes,
particularly those from African American women. The conservative radio
host Rush Limbaugh recently said
“When women got the right to vote is when it all went downhill because
that’s when votes started being cast with emotion and maternal
instincts….”

Commentator and author Ann Coulter.Photo: Gage SkidmoreEarlier, in 2007, the conservative Fox news guest and celebrity pundit
Ann Coulter told the New York Observer, “If we took away women's right
to vote, we'd never have to worry about another Democratic president.
It's kind of a pipe dream, it's a personal fantasy of mine, but I don't
think it's going to happen. And it is a good way of making the point
that women are voting so stupidly, at least single women.”

Now
her dream may be coming true. By choosing Paul Ryan as his Vice
Presidential running mate, Mitt Romney has shown his true agenda. Although Romney has flip-flopped repeatedly on women’s issues, Ryan is
a standard bearer for
a budget proposal that would ban common forms of contraception and
eliminate abortion. He also voted to end funding for Planned Parenthood
and against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009
that promoted fairness in the work place for women. Both men have
repeatedly said they are against Obama’s affordable care health
program. In addition, Ryan has repeatedly said he wants to eliminate
Medicare, the popular medical insurance for the elderly, and Social
Security—the country’s only safety net for seniors without pensions.

Other Republicans have similarly gloated about how voter suppression will elect Mitt Romney. According to one news report,
“Former Florida GOP Chairman Jim Greer (currently under indictment for
stealing party funds) acknowledged in a deposition that a 2009
Republican party meeting included discussions about ‘voter suppression
and keeping blacks from voting.’” The report also revealed that “In
December, Paul Schurick, a top aide to former Maryland Gov. Bob Ehrlich,
was convicted of election fraud for using automated phone calls to
suppress the African-American vote during Mr. Ehrlich's unsuccessful
2010 bid." Entered into evidence was one consultant’s memo that
described a "Schurick Doctrine" to "promote confusion, emotionalism and frustration among African-American Democrats."

The Republicans know exactly what they are doing and they have been astonishingly successful
at creating different ways of suppressing votes that might re-elect the
President. In an August 16th editorial, The New York Timescriticized
a Pennsylvania judge for upholding a Republican-backed voter ID law
“that could disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of poor and minority
state residents in November.” The judge acknowledged that he “was aware
of the remark made by Michael Turzai, The Pennsylvania House Republican
leader, that the voter ID requirement would win the state for Mitt
Romney in November” but then, in an outrageous defense of his decision,
said that no proof existed that other legislators agreed with Turzai.
The editorial ended with this ominous warning:
“Many voters won’t be able to participate in the democratic process any
longer. Some won’t show up at the polls, unwilling to leap the hurdles
placed before them, while others will try to vote and find their
ballots rejected. This lawsuit was an opportunity to sweep away
barriers to full citizen ship.”

This
is hardly the first time the supposedly greatest democracy on earth has
suppressed voting. After the Civil War, the South passed Jim Crow literacy and poll tax laws to keep African Americans from voting until the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965.
The United States, moreover, is one of the few nations that prevents
former felons, in some states, from voting for the rest of their lives.
In 2004, 5.3 million Americans were denied
the right to vote because of previous felony convictions. In the 2000
election, former convicted felons in Florida---disproportionably African
American---were prohibited from voting. They would have put Al Gore in
the White House.

Across
the country, civil rights groups continue to sue states that have
passed laws to suppress voters, something that still may surprise a
great number of Americans, not to mention the rest of the world. Meanwhile, the election looms closer and people who cannot meet the new
requirements get fed up, feel helpless, and are less likely to go to
the polling place on Election Day.

So this is America in 2012, a democracy in rapid decline. On August 21, TalkingPoints Memo reported that:

“The
GOP platform committee adopted language on Tuesday supporting states
that have passed voter ID and proof of citizenship laws. The citizenship
amendment, proposed by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R), would
support laws that make voters prove their citizenship before they are
allowed on the voter rolls.”

When the Supreme Court decided in a landmark case that the First Amendment
allowed corporations and unions to give any amount of money to
candidates, they turned elections into a arms race for campaign
donations. The suppression of voters is the final unraveling of what
used to be viewed as a democratic nation.

It is not too soon to ask the international community to monitor the 2012 American election. This is an emergency.

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